A Sad Celebration 5/07

This poem is humbly dedicated to those unfortunate souls who lost their lives in April 2007 at Virginia Tech University


The national soul is wounded and bleeding
From self-inflicted gun shots
Arising from a calloused culture of permissiveness
The soul prefers the darkness to blinding light
But the blood running down the beautiful slopes
Of the Blue Ridge mountains
Absorbed into the ground at Virginia Tech
Along with the hopes and dreams
Of thirty-two sons and daughters
Serves as a reminder of its mortality
And exposes its lack of civility

A transplanted son of South Korea
Sought and won the right
To perpetrate the country’s worst mass slaughter
His name does not bear mention
In the pure realm of poetry
It should rightly be erased from all record of existence
The killer’s need for attention
Played such a powerful role
He took perverse pleasure in recognizing
The negative consequences for his own soul
He convinced himself
That suicide would be his final glory
The only way to make his broken life
More than a ten second story
Yet sadistic media will convey sainthood
On the head of the psychotic
With news specials and made for TV movies
Where he is the star and the victims are extras
They who woke up Monday morning
With bright futures and enlightened minds
That were snuffed by the dark force
Of the personified fallen angel
The list of the dead
Is too long to commit to memory
But the number remains notable
For the enormity of the tragedy
So here I will defy convention
By writing their names in sad celebration
To preserve their legacy for future generations

Ross and Chris, Jeremy and Emily
Brian and Ryan, Austin and Jocelyne
G.V. and Leviri, Henry and Partaki
Julia and Reema, Caitlin and Lauren
Juan and Jarrett, Mary and Leslie
Michael and Maxine, Erin and Kevin
Daniel C. and Daniel O., Waleed and Nicole
Matthew G. and Matthew L., Rachel and Minal


If a man seeks to kill
There is no way to stop him
In a society where technology
Makes killing as easy
As a trip to the convenience store
Where it takes longer to buy
Six items on a grocery list
Than to purchase an obvious instrument of murder
How long will this situation go on?
It’s a safe bet that hatred and resentment
Will never be gone
From a country that reinforces inequality
To such a harrowing degree
I would like to envision a day
Where enlightened masses band together and say
We will no longer submit to a self sustaining lobby
That manufactures death with incredible efficiency
And makes it much more likely
That blood will flow
From the mountains to the sea
Only a sustained slap in the face of apathy
Will bring us an era of gun reduced reality
The faces of the Virginia tech dead
Will comprise our virtuous tapestry